Why we use syntax highlighting? It undoubtedly saves both the readers and the developer’s time. Also, they can easily find codes or text from a page without wasting a lot of times. So we can say that it increases the readability and context of a text.

Moreover, the syntax highlighting system helps a programmer to write the correct codes and avoids the errors. Research shows the syntax highlighting system helps the programmer’s to complete a complex program within a short time. There are many syntax highlighter plugins available on the web, but I will only discuss the best and recently updated plugins here. You may already have a list of syntax plugins, but have you checked all of those are up-to-date or not? Let’s go through the list and see what I mean.

1. SyntaxHighlighter Evolved

SyntaxHighlighter Evolved is not a new WordPress syntax highlighter. You may have seen the plugin before. It is one of the most popular syntax highlighter plugins because of its simplicity. There is no chance to get confused with a lot of unwanted features like many other plugins have.

You can configure this with a few clicks, and it will automatically detect the code blocks on your blog. Also, you will get a few themes and settings to configure the plugin to work correctly on your website. Therefore, you can give a try.

2. HTML Editor Syntax Highlighter

It is a fantastic shortcode supported WordPress syntax highlighter plugin. This simple plugin uses Codemirror.js library to highlight code blocks of your WordPress website. One can publish his highlighted code through WordPress HTML post or page editor. Not only that but also this plugin will highlight the code inside the WordPress theme and plugin editor.

This syntax highlighter plugin for WordPress will work great for customizing your WordPress theme and plugin. Moreover, if you are a WordPress developer, you can avoid many vital coding mistakes by using it. We can see some other exciting features of this plugin like Using Ctrl+S to save posts/pages, auto restoration of cursor position after reloading the page, Fullscreen mode, etc.

3. Enlighter – Customizable Syntax Highlighter

Enlighter is another popular WordPress syntax highlighter plugin. More than ten thousand people are using this plugin, and most of them awarded it with the 5-star rating. If we take a look at the features, we will see this one is straightforward to use and lightweight. This plugin supports almost all the popular languages.

Also, we get a separate admin panel to operate the syntax highlighting part of our blog with a live preview mode. Moreover, you will find no hard coding. This plugin uses a simple CSS code to generate some eye-catching themes. Even, you don’t need to have any CSS knowledge to customize the theme. Finally, I will say it can be the most natural solution to highlight code on your blog.

4. WP Code Highlight .JS

If you want the fast displaying code for any browser, you must go with the WP Code Highlight.JS WordPress plugin. It shows the code faster than any other plugins on any browser you use. WP Code Highlight.JS can detect coding language automatically, and this plugin supports 176 languages on 79 styles. Also, it supports multi-language code highlighting. Moreover, the local highlight.js enables you to use some languages to make JavaScript file smaller. You have the option to run highlight.js from local storage or CDN. Isn’t it a cool feature of this plugin?

This is not the end; also, you will have a surprise package with this smart plugin. You can migrate to syntax highlighter, prettify and CaryonSyntaxHighlighter at any time you want, as this plugin gives you full support for it. WP Code Highlight.js is designed and developed by OWenT and has over 3000+ downloads.

5. Code Prettify

It is one of the best and most popular WordPress syntax highlighter plugin among all. It is indeed a very lightweight plugin which makes it more popular. You will get a clear idea by watching the download ratio of this fantastic syntax highlighter. I can’t say this one is full of features, but you will get everything to beautify the code blocks of your website.

Managing code blocks is genuinely very easy by using this plugin because it automatically targets all code and pre tag of the blog. Therefore, your workload will be decreased to arrange, manage and show code blocks on your blog.

6. Simple Code Highlighter

If you are not a programmer or don’t know any programming language but want to use syntax highlighting for your web content, you haven’t to worry enough. You can use syntax highlighting code if you go with the Simple Code Highlighter plugin. When it comes to displaying highlighted text, this plugin uses Google code prettify script.

You only need to press the button for getting the code from editor toolbar and after that merely paste the code on your targeted place. See the magic! The plugin will take the responsibility to do the rest. This plugin is designed by Keddin Turpo. You can see how many people love this plugin by visiting the following link.

7. My Syntax Highlighter

My Syntax Highlighter is one of the latest WordPress syntax highlighter plugins to beautify the coding part of your website. As a WordPress user, you may have already known that plugins may conflict’s with one another. Therefore we should choose the most flexible and compatible plugins for our website. In that case, you can use My Syntax Highlighter without any hesitation. This lightweight WordPress plugin comes with a large number of features. Installing and using this plugin is a matter of a few clicks. Also, the plugin is shortcode supported. Among many features, it is highly secure and fresh coded, supported by all modern browsers, multi-language supported and more.

We usually need different styles to show source codes on our website. For this reason, the developer of this plugin has provided different themes. You can choose your desired one among them, and that will help to improve your blog’s readability.

WP-GeSHi-Highlight is relatively new but one of the best WordPress syntax highlighter plugins. The reason I am saying that is, it is loaded with full of features. It can process almost every coding language (256). For this reason, web developers love to use this plugin for their web development related blog.

Also, this high performing simple plugin will send only one extra HTTP request which will make your website faster and mobile friendly. You will get an easy admin UI to operate the plugin as the way you want. Like, syntax highlighting theme for the different language, show or hide line numbers from your code blocks, Grabbing shortcodes, etc. Finally, if any issue occurred, you will get fantastic support from the plugin developers for free.

9. Syntax Highlighter For Theme/ Plugin Editor

We all know that WordPress theme editor and the plugin editor can make some custom changes to the theme or plugin files. In this case, the “Syntax Highlighter For Theme/ Plugin Editor” will help you a lot to customize them. This WordPress plugin performs by changing the default theme and plugin source code with a powerful editor which contains CodeMirror library. On the other hand, with the help of the source code editor option, you can check and fix the syntax errors or other code errors.

You have not to work very hard or don’t have to face any difficulty to install the plugin. All you need to do is, install the plugin and check the “make it enable” option. After that, you will be able to use it. Also, this plugin provides you full control over the editor, and you can easily configure the edit option from the setting page. The developer of this plugin gives you 36 different color schemes for using on the code editor.

10. Mivhak Syntax Highlighter

The “Mivhak” WordPress syntax highlighter is one of the feature rich WordPress syntax highlighter plugins I have ever seen. With this plugin, you can use both of the HTML and visual WordPress editor quite easily. Also, it’s well known for its syntax error checking feature while writing the code.

This plugin is the modified version of the ACE code editor. The user easily can set the plugin preferences through the setting panel as it has easy to use setting panel options. On the other hand, with the help of TinyMCE popup feature, you can enter the code into HTML or Visual editor. Also, there is a button available for entering the code automatically. This plugin supports more than 130+ different programming languages, so you will have choices to work with your favorite one.

11. Prismatic

Prismatic is a complete syntax highlighter plugin based on some popular js scripts. It works great with all other major WordPress plugins. I must say that this one is full of features, themes and supported coding languages. It will arrange any code blocks of your website in a user-friendly manner. This syntax highlighter plugin for WordPress supports almost 41 coding languages and eight different themes. Also, it will give you the opportunity to show code block inside the contents, comments and post excerpts.

12. FV Code Highlighter

If your website is loaded with massive codes and want to get rid of this, you must use the FV Code Highlighter. Use of this WordPress syntax highlighter plugin can make the codes of your website more readable and user-friendly. It supports PHP, JavaScript, CSS, XML, and HTML for highlighting codes. The color scheme of this plugin is same as the Adobe Dreamweaver. There are options to change the code color too.

But, you need to have some CSS knowledge to make the changes. You can customize every single output of the plugin. One more important feature of this plugin is, you have the authority to use the code tag on the comment section. The last update was three months ago.

13. Simple Custom CSS

People, who love to work with programming languages, definitely like the Simple Custom CSS plugin. If you use this WP syntax color plugin, you will be able to add any custom CSS file to the site’s theme or plugin directories. So, you can use syntax highlighter code for your site with the help of this plugin. Also, you have got an advantage to check the code error and fix it, as this plugin offers the option for you.

The popularity of this plugin is increasing day by day, and we can notice it from its increasing download number. This plugin offers easy customization options for the users to optimize anything comfortably. Also, it has the WordPress user interface available and active plugin supports. So, if user stuck on any point, they will be able to get customer support. John Regan is the developer of this popular plugin, and the last update was about six months ago.

14. AccessPress Custom CSS

This is another powerful free WordPress plugin for highlighting syntax codes that has the best value to adding custom CSS file on your site. The “AccessPress custom CSS” plugin will replace the default style sheet of your plugins and themes with the new one. Also, you have the option to put custom CSS code without editing the theme or plugin files.

As a result, you can upload your syntax highlighter code on these files and display the code on your site. Moreover, this plugin allows you to set the color scheme for the codes and has extremely well tab support for writing the codes without any error.

Any Other WordPress Syntax Highlighter Plugin?

Now, you have got the best 15 syntax highlighter plugins list. I have listed all the plugins based on the most download numbers and recent update. If you compare my list with others, then you will find the differences. Hope that you have enjoyed reading this post. If you see my listing helpful, please don’t forget to share it. Also, you can share your experience or any other plugins that I have missed out. I will add it to my list.